“You’ll have to cancel your credit cards,” my husband said.
“That’s not exactly my biggest challenge,” I said, trying not to cry into the phone.
It was 11:00 at night and I was at the airport in North Carolina.
My wallet was in Minneapolis.
I was still clinging to my passport, but I had no other I.D. No credit or debit cards. And no cash.
How would I get to my hotel? Would they let me check in? Do people still wire money? Where? How would I get there? Could I just live in the airport, eating the half-a-brownie in my bag until someone rescued me?
Less than 24 hours later I was drinking wine and eating catfish in one of the nicest restaurants in the Raleigh-Durham area.
You CAN check into a hotel with no credit card. IF you have the kind of husband who doesn’t mind faxing credit card information to a foreign Holiday Inn in the middle of the night. (Of course, it helps if you take the free shuttle to the right Holiday Inn — there are THREE near the Raleigh-Durham airport? Trust me. I was flustered by the wallet-confusion, and rode the shuttle to two where I had no reservation.)
If you flew Delta, and set your wallet down in the waiting area (because you just bought a brownie), it’s possible that a wonderful employee named Spencer might pick up your wallet, find your business card and call you.
FedEx will pick up lost items at far-off airports and deliver them to your hotel. In less than two days.
Best of all —if you’re a farm newspaper editor on a media junket sponsored by an agribusiness multinational, someone will buy your, breakfast, lunch, and high calorie supper.
But I can really see how this could have had a different ending.
